Meeting the Challenges of Energy Sustainability
Selecting and managing appliances in the IoT era.
How much energy do my appliances use? Is my lifestyle sustainable for me? What should I change? We are all increasingly preoccupied by these questions as the environmental situation worsens and energy costs rise. But what tools are there to help us navigate these concerns and make wise decisions?
Aware but Unarmed
Throughout the European Union, new appliances are rated for their consumption. In some countries, meters for home electrical installations also provide "estimates" of consumption by category: heating, cooling, hot water, etc. But these indications are too far removed from our specific use and daily decisions about how to use our appliances.
What do different appliances consumer in there different modes? What is the impact of my clothes washer's ECO mode? What about the consumption of my old or used appliances?
The tools that are in place to help us, do encourage awareness but leave us disarmed in daily decisions about how we use and maintain appliances.
Real-Time Data Inspires Good Behavior
Knowing how our appliances perform and how we use them are crucial to good use and purchasing decisions. For example... Why would you replace a rarely used oven instead of an old water heater that contributes twenty times more to annual household electricity consumption. Knowing is the key to good decisions.
What about appliance energy-saving modes? Do we use them? Knowing, seeing what the differences are between the consumption of different modes of operation is the key to using them.
In both of these situations, getting correct, visual, real-time data about can help us set priorities and make meaningful, durable changes in our homes and our behavior.